luckykaa

Took a while to got Flick out of bed. Apparently some jerk was keeping her awake by snoring. Ooops.

But I needed to get her out of bed because we were off to Munich for the Bavarian film studios. Had trouble working out the best ticket. €74 each seemed a little much. As it turned out there was a cheaper option; €30. Return. For both of us. Including Munich public transport. We had to get the slower train but since that was 1h 50 rather than 1h 30 it seemed worth the saving. And the train to Munich has a pretty view of the mountains and of picturesque Bavarian villages.

Since yesterday was so warm, I decided I'd just borrow a hoodie from flickums. By the time we got to the studios, it was sleeting and my coat was in another country. Still, we made it there. And we appeared to be in a fairly non-descript set of studio buildings. Was this even the right place? Eventually we found the entrance. Turns out that the tour is in German only. The English language tour is a summer only thing.

Worried that it might be a bit of a washout, we decided to sign up for the tour anyway. We'd come this far after all. As it turned out it was really good. Our guide - Michi was the guide for the Enlgish tour as well, so he spoke English and was kind enough to give us an English summary of what he said. The studios are used for a range of different show types, incuding the 24 hour shopping channel. So we saw part of that being filmed. More interesting was the set for some German soap opera (Sturm Der Liebe). The tour involved one of the guests being the receptionist reading from the autocue, and cutting between filmed footage I gather in reality, the filmed footage would also be recorded live.

Another section had a bunch of movie props from Big Game (a fairly obscure Finnish movie, but it did star Samual L Jackson), and I got a photo of myself in Air Force One. We also saw the set for Das Boot. A lot of it was fitting from a real German submarine. The director apparently was very keen on realism so tried to make the actors as miserable as possible.

Other fun interactive elements were me giving a weather forecast, and a film on a train set, with a moving scenery background (I was the moving background operator).

Finished the day meeting with a German friend of Flick's. Nice chap. A lead programmer with BMW. We swapped horror stories about big companies and bad projects. We went to a German beer hall and had beer (well, I did; Flick doesn't drink) and tasty steak in pepper sauce.

Caught a train home and arrived back at a sensible time.

I have the lonely goatherd song from the sound of music stuck in my head! Damn you Rogers and Hammerstein for your catchy songs!

It was a nice sunny day, we decided to do the Sound of Music tour today rather than the planned Flick's birthday thing. They have minivans with 7 passengers, but I expect they have a big bus during peak tourist season.

Our guide was a Spanish man named Antonio. So we drove around town, saw the lke that Maria and the children fell into, went to the gazebo where a 22 year old sang how she was 16, going on 17, took a photo of the wrong yellow house... We didn't get close enough to the Von Trapp house (and I'm not sure if it was the actual house or the movie prop) to get a good pic of that one. We did see some nice views of the Alps though. Not the Hil Maria twirled on, because that was miles away and in another country. Tour finished at Mondsee where we see the church where Maria was married.

Antonio was lovely. He was very talkative, and pointed out all the key locations for the sound of music as well as other sites of interest, including Doppler's birthplace, and took our photos, and stopped the one person who wasn't part of couple frm beinglonely.

Finished the day at a nice restaurant where they provided hefty Austrian luberjack sized protions of pork. Also two beers! Yum.

I've never really done Valenties Day before. Last year I had a pleasant day with Flickums' German counterpart (both of us were several hundred kms away from our significant others), but this year I wanted to spend it with

flickums! So she came down for the weekend. We spent a lot of the weekend snuggling and cooking,

Friday, she arrived. I cooked steak (really good steak from a friendly local butcher), and potato wedges. Then we got an early night because she'd been up since 4 and I hadn't managed much sleep.

Saturday I made pie. Then there was more snuggling. And we played video games. Wii boxing and Wii bowling. I really feel I should get some more games for that console. Went to the local "trade-It" to see if they had anoything else. Nothing worth buying. I did end up adding to the PS2/PS3 pile though. Then we went to Leicester Roleplay guild. There was one (big) game of D&D this week, and we were given adolescent dragon characters. Flick called her sapphire dragon "Blue", and inspired by Jurassic World, I followed the pattern with "Delta". I like my dragon already. Might have to play that game again.

Sunday we got up very late. Had brunch. Went to the cinema. Failed to see a film. Came back and I introduced Flick to Mission: impossible Except I found getting hold of an episode rather hard. Ended up watching the pilot, which was fine, but I'd rather have gone for something a little further in once the series had hit its stride.

We had a candlelit dinner. Flick arranged the starter (tomato soup with lots of nice extras) and the dessert (chocolate mousse), which was really good, although quite overpowering with the chocolate. I did roast venison and braised cabbage. It consider it a hugely successful dinner.

Finally managed to see Deadpool on a second attempt. Which was exciting, silly, fourth wall breaking (and 16th wall breaking) and generally lots and lots of fun. Opening credits are excellent. I lost geek points because flickums had to explain the post credits bit to me.

Saw The Force Awakens last weekend. I enjoyed it.

Non spoilery technical stuff - It was in Dolby 3D - the version with shiny glasses. It's better than the previous version with horizontal and vertical polarisation, because it handles head tilting a lot better. Downside is it doesn't handle 2D very well. One of the lenses sees nothing at all. It was bit distracting when they switched from 3D trailers back to 2D ads. Also since when have they been showing ads after trailers? Technically though it gives really awesome 3D.

Anyway - there will be many spoilers here so here's a cut.

( SPOILER ALERT! )

Another trip to Sheffield to see Flickums. Was so excited I forgot my trousers!

And my washbag.

I did notice my bag felt a little light.

This was a pre-christmas weekend for myself and

flickums. Spent the weekend watching Christmas tat and Star Wars related tat. And eating turkey.

I drove down to Sheffield. Holly (My satnav) did particularly well, having told me there was a 108 minute delay on the main route, and suggested I took a slightly different route that would only add about 20 minutes (and much less sitting in traffic). Flickums was held up by evil traffic of doom in the city centre, which gave me a chance to pick up needed toiletries. Started off with the exchange of gifts. I received a Raspbery Pi, The Last Of Us, An Orphan Cat T-shirt, and a Jurassic Tea mug. Made a promise to myself not to play with any of them until Christmas. I also received a mystery gift from Nova, but will keep that one until Christmas day. Gifts I gave flickums seemed to go down well despite my taking up more and more of her wall and shelf space. Flickums made stew. A somewhat soupy stew, which we declared was stewp!

Fridays movies: It's A Trap (Family Guy Return of the Jedi). The "Pie Fighters" joke sort of broke me.

Saturday, we watched movies. I played Mass Effect to see what it was like. Looks cool but don't know if I'd get into it. Flickums cooked a Sunday roast (except for the spuds. I did the spuds). Day was mostly spent watchingmovies and snuggling. We didn't leave the house once.

Saturdays Movies:
The Nightmare Before Christmas. The best Hallowe'en/Christmas crossover movie ever! And the songs are still great. I love animation, and this looks absolutely glorious in HD!
Bernard and The Genie. Time has not been that kind to this, to be honest. Still a really sweet funny Christmas special.
Supernatural Christmas special. Yes, where they get fudging tied to the chairs! Oh Fudge!
Die Hard: One of my favourite stealth Christmas movies. Actually there were a few bits i hadn't noticed before. Like weasel-guy was actually cokehead weasel-guy. I have only ever seen it on TV, so I imagine the BBC snipped that bit.

Sunday was more snuggling and movie watching. Fanboys - because it's mandatory viewing. Oh god it's so funny!!! And so many cameos. Also saw some of the Nostalgia Critic Star Wars reviews.

Then we saw Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens! In Imax! I was doubly delighted that they used Dolby 3D rather than the now rather old-fashioned horizontal/vertical polarisation. Dichroic filters FTW! Yes I am a nerd! Really rather enjoyed it. Still need to ponder views, but I thought it was a lot of fun.

We then had tasty foods at a nearby restaurant, and frothed about Star Wars. And ate more tasty foods. Wanted to watch Free Enterprise to complement Fanboys, although that is really much more a Trekkie show than a Star Wars show. Still, ran out of time. Maybe next time.

Then I had to go home. Booo :(

Why do I always have to go home after seeing flickums?

flickums seems to think my taste in movies is terminally downbeat. Since my favourites include jolly films like Terminator, and the permanently nighttime Dark City, and I just enjoyed Mockinjay part 2; she may have a point.

It's not all doom and gloom though. Here are the happy films I like.

The Fifth Element. A double fudge sundae of a film. Everything about it is gorgeous from the futuristic New York to the Jean Paul Gautier's costume design. And it's so much fun!

The Karate Kid. One of tge 1980sest stories of triumph of the underdog. And source of some of the essential references. Wax on, wax off.

The Princess Bride. Truly a story of true love. Miracle Max and Valerie are a perfect couple. Don't see Buttercup and Westley working out though.

How To Train Your Dragon - Not only is it an awesome kids movie, but it has one of the best movie soundtracks of the decade.

Flash Gordon - "Gordon's alive!!!" "Flash! I love you but we only have 14 hours to save the Earth!", and other great lines. Plus, that thumping Queen soundtrack including Brian May playing the wedding march!

So it's not all doom and gloom! Just mostly that way.

There are many franchises where I like the supporting cast more than the protagonist. This is becoming one of them.

While I miss Desmond Llewelyn, I love the geekiness of new Q. Froma Q perspective, this is a geeky tech guy in the department who has to cover up for an agent who he trusts absolutely (I presume genre savviness is part of his nerd credentials), while treading the tightrope of not letting M get wind of what he's up to while the lunatic dumps a multi-million pound prototype car in the Tiber. He goes out of his way to track down Bond in the alpine health resort - a place where he does a much better piece of spywork by actually fitting in when ordering a drink. Further spy skills are shown as he carefully evades the Spectre operatives without having to steal a plane cause millions of euros worth of damage and just draw attention to himself.

Moneypenny is still just a sidekick, although that is an upgrade from her role in previous films. She's clearly the person who actually keeps the department running.

I miss the previous M. Judi Dench was awesome. Latest M is pretty cool though.

It seems the only reason Bond knows he's right is because he's James Bond and he's always right. And we know he's going to win. He's James Bond. He always wins. He's really not the most interesting character.

I saw The Martian twice. The first time in 2D, because there was an unidentified "technical fault". I felt I was missing a lot by seeing it in 2D. But I had a free ticket so I saw it in 3D.

It's a great film. Go and see it if you haven't yet. Ideally in 3D.

I don't say that about all films.

One of the 3D trailers was MockingJay. I found the backgrounds jarring. They looked like early 3D games. The main parts of the image are in 3D but the details aren't and the details are what matter. So we have a building in the background that looks like a photograph. Walls that may have an angle but they are perfectly flat and smooth. There's a scene in a ballroom or something and it's clear that a bit more effort has been made to get lamps at a different depth but they look like cardboard cutouts rather than real things.

The Martian was filmed in 3D. 3D cameras that capture the extra information themselves. As we pan across the Mars habitat's desk, we see a Rubik's cube and juggling balls and pens and equipment. All of it has depth and texture. But it's not jsut that. The Hermes corridors flows past us as we follow an astronaut through the ship. A 2D television screen blends smoothly into a 3D live press conference. Ridley Scott uses that extra dimension to impress us. And the shots of Mars are stunning!

Seeing it a second time I could focus on other aspects. The music. The music is an important part of the film. Much of it is Disco! Tied into the plot in a charming way.

More movies on their way this winter. Spectre is the next one. MockingJay after that, and I hear there's another installment of that cheesy 70's space movie.

This is not going to be a thrilling entry. Will write about the movie later.

Actually managing to see The Martian was a lot harder than I expected.

Three cinemas are about the same distance from me. I decided that the 18:15 showing was the most convenient. 2D because generally I don't like 3D. I set my SatNav. It decided that the cinema was actually down a road that could not be driven down, presumably because that was the closest road to the physical location of the cinema.

Drove round to the other side. That was quite some way away because of Leicester's road layout. By that time I was 15 minutes late. Decided that may be too late to catch the start of the actual movie. So I drove down to the city centre. Found somewhere to park, and went in. Quite expensive. It's Showcase's X-Plus screen or something. I was expecting it to be good.

3D didn't seem to be all that striking. In fact everything looked very flat. And there were some shots that looke dlike they were made for 3D. I took my glasses off. No double image. After a while I looked around. Several other people had taken their glasses off (there were only about a dozen people there). I found this a bit distracting. More to the point, I realised I wanted to see it in 3D! It was clearly made with 3D in mind! And I'd paid extra for it. I hate complaining.

When complaining, I was a bit concerned I might not get a decent refund. I'm not good at confrontation. Fortunately another customer heard me complain and she had my back. She really took no prisoners. End result was I got a full refund and a free entry ticket.

What I found strange though, is that of the dozen or so people in there, only 5 of us were there waiting for the manager. Did the rest of the viewers simply not notice? Or do people not complain?

Another fun weekend with

flickums.

Did part 3 of the cultural exchange. Flickums showed me Hercules. I think that was my favourite of the films so far. Less girly, and the animation nerd in me loves the Gerald Scarfe character designs, the absolutely brillant use of colour, and the sassy Gospel singers, and James Woods was brilliant as Hades! I showed her Dark City. This was the Director's Cut. The version where the nature of the city and of the strangers is revealed slowly. It makes it a very different film.

Downed a bottle of Rioja while watching Hercules. That was probably a mistake. It meant I didn't sleep that well. Was very tired the next day. But flickums wanted to know what I was like when drunk and Rioja is very nice.

We went to The National Space Centre. Kinda fun for space nerds. I'm a space nerd, so I had fun. The planetarium show was a nice thing about where all matter in the universe came from (narrated by Andy Serkis). Upstairs they had a show of Le Voyage dans la Lune - The classic George Melias silent movie where they fire the capsule into the moon's eye. Also two genuine full sized rockets (still a little peeved that the British Rocket programme ended. Black Arrow was cool!).

Flickums made chocolate brownies. They're a little squidgy but very tasty. They were made with black cherries in kirsch. I still have the syrup (Perhaps that will be poured onto a future batch of waffles).

Also managed to show some "Look Around You" - which went down well, and Star Fleet - which apparently hasn't aged well.Perhaps it appeals more to those of us who were 5 when it was first on.

Now I need me-time again. This makes me very conflicted because I also want more flickums-time. Silly brain.

So after two weeks away, I was feeling the need to see

flickums again. Went to Sheffield. Frustrating drive up to sheffield as traffic was terrible then Holly (my satnav) decided to turn her display off. Still, we found our way there. Had hugs and tea which made everything better, and Flickums made me watch The Little Mermaid (Flickums' side of cultural exchange part 2). Cute but a bit girly for my tastes.

Went to the Ladybower reservoir. After a bit of faffing around, going to the wrong reservoir first, realising I need to refuel, Holly taking me to a closed petrol station, but eventually finding the right place. Nice area. I like open water spaces. We then found the Foxhouse pub based on Flickums' recomendation. Holly took us right past it. She really was being a pain this weekend! Pub seemed nice but was kinda empty. Loved getting out of the city. Yorkshire has some awesome roads for driving a sporty car around. Not that Im that adventurous a driver, but still nice.

Finished the day at

blazingskies's place where we had lemon chicken, watched Logan's Run (my side of cultural exchange part 2), and I waffled with a waffle iron. I'd only ever seen Logan's run on TV. A few bits seemed unfamiliar to me. I gather the TV edits chopped a few bits out.

Sunday was a more relaxed day. Watched Doctor Who. Snuggled lots. Was loaned heaps of old PS1/2/3 games. Strolled to the Botanical gardens. Went back to the pub for a carvery. Pub was very full. And at the end of the meal, so was I!

And the weekend ended too quickly. While I am looking forward to "me time", I want more "flickums time".

It turned out

flickums had never seen the Karate Kid! Naturally I was shocked!

I had never seen Beauty and the Beast. Natually flickums was shocked!

So we had a cultural exchange. We watched both films (over two days - time was not on our side).

I enjoyed it. Loved the animaton style. Not so sure about the songs - seemed a bit old fashioned. The animated furniture was cute.

We had deep fried camberty with it. I also learned that deep fried camambert takes about 15 seconds to cook. Not sure exactly how long. Also it should be served quickly otherwise the cheese leaks out. We did have a few empty wedges that had lost all their cheese.

Need to work out what's next for the cultural exchange. I'm sure I'll find a few other holes in Flick's media experience. For now though, next on the agenda is Free Enterprise. And I'll watch The Little Mermaid. Apparently we're getting the more girly ones out of the way first.

Or, as

flickums would have it, "Starlord and his Raptor Bros"
( Spoilers )

So, I rather enjoyed this film, but there were a few glaring historical inaccuracies.

Sherlock Holmes was actually a consulting detective in London and not a code breaker.

Elizabeth Swann actually married Captain Will Turner

Tywin Lannister was lord of Casterly Rock and not a navy commander.

WW2 battles were faught in colour. Black and White was a hollywood invention.

--------------------

Seriously it was enjoyable. I think you need to accept a certyain level of Hollywood metaphor. A group of experts working as a team industriously breaking codes on a round the clock basis with the full support of the commanding officer would have been accurate but somewhat lacking in drama.

If we assume that Alan Turing is being used as a metaphor for Bletchley Park, and Cdr. Alistair Denniston as the part of the military that thinks code breaking is a waste of time, it sort of works for the historical narrative.

Agent Carter of S.H.I.E.L.D. and a rewatch of Avengers Assemble made me realise I couldn't remember what happened in Captain America.

Rewatched it. It's a shame the ending is a bit of a mess. The film up until he actually becomes Captain America the Hero is rather good. The rest feels a little rushed and confused. Like they tried to make an origin movie and an action movie and squished the latter into about 30 minutes.

A couple of things that bugged me though;

How did Steve's trousers still fit him? Is there something special about Marvel universe trousers where they always fit, or did they also respond to the super soldier serum? Can we expect the adventure of Captain Pants or something?

At one point Steve throws himself on a grenade (which turns out to be a dummy). Nobody points out just how reckless this is. Everyone else ran away. Steve's action would have resulted in one more casualty (himself) than just taking cover like all the sensible people.

Why was it called a tesserect? It's a cube :P This is a tesserect:

Bought 2 DVDs. The €2 used DVD zone. Needs to be good enough to actually think I might want to watch it and to take up space in luggage. Not so good that I'll be disappointed not to have it on Blu-ray. Went for Chronicle and The Fast annd The Furious. Chronicle is pretty good if you like Faux documentary type things. The Fast and The Furious is pretty stupid. That goes into the very small dumb action movie pile, on top of Underworld. Am wondering if Star Trek (J.J Abrams version) also belongs there. Still not sure how I feel about that movie.

Started reading Temeraire book 7. This is an actual paper paperback made of paper! Temeraire seems to be a bit of an angsty teen these days. He's close to saying "That's so unfair!" and flying off in a sulk.

Papers Please is the best Tedious Bureaucracy based game I've played (Although Anchor has promise if you're a LARPER)

New season of Legend of Korra, Also Sleepy Hollow, Agents of S.H.E.I.L.D are demanding my attention. Atlantis, plus the finale of IT crowd still to watch.

Podcast grabber has been listening to More or Less and The Now Show!

Saw Cabin in the Woods. Impressed how we get a slasher movie, it gets deconstructed, subverted, twisted and turned into a film that still hits all the right notes for a slasher movie! Saw Wreck-it Ralph last week. Disney Studios can do good films rather than the shameless cash-ins they seem to go for.

So much media to consume. It's tough job but somebody's gotta do it!

Answers to this quiz inside

Okay, so, nobody got 3 or 4 yet.

Extra clues (plus repeat of the originals)

3. Star sapphires take a week to crystallize properly. Would diamonds or emeralds do?
Extra clue; same character: "Sorry, miss. I was giving myself an oil-job"
4. Wiping out the human race? That's a great idea. That's great. But more of a long-term thing. I mean, first we have to focus on more immediate goals.
Extra clue; different character this time: "I'm in Insurance"

( Spoilers for answers: )

Swiped from

davidbrider

A. Pick 10 of your favorite movies.
B. Then pick one of your favorite quotes from each movie.
C. Post the quotes in your journal.
D. Have those on your friends list try to guess what the movie is.
E. Bold the quote once it has been correctly identified and place the guesser's user name directly after the quote.

1. I loved it when you nuked Las Vegas. Suitably biblical ending to the place, don't you think?

gaspode got this one
2. Negative. I am a meat popsicle guessed by

xanthipe.
3. Star sapphires take a week to crystallize properly. Would diamonds or emeralds do?
4. Wiping out the human race? That's a great idea. That's great. But more of a long-term thing. I mean, first we have to focus on more immediate goals.
5. I've just got pixlexia, OK? got by

l_j_b and

tlanti
6. I know a little German. He's sitting over there. Another point to

gaspode
7. Look at it this way: in a hundred years, who's gonna care?

gaspode who also identified which scene:)
8. Life is pain, Highness. Anyone who says differently is selling something. got by

xanthipe,

omylouse and

the_smut_fairy
9. Whoever wrote this episode should DIE.

the_smut_fairy
10. Don't empty my mind! Please, I beg you! My mind is all I have! I've spent my whole life trying to fill it!

omylouse

~~Was expecting someone to have got #5. #1 and #6 are slightly more obscure~~, still think I might need to add an extra clue for #4. I think most people will have seen it, but it's not a very quotable movie.

And feel free to post and guess. They're screened so you won't spoiler them.

Movie plot holes just sit there taunting me. I need to bitch about them. Sadly my ranting lacks any particular humour value.

Pacific Rim

The obvious nitpick of this being ridiculous is invalid. Rule of Cool says giant robots win over realism. I can even accept that they'll believe that a wall might work and justifies winding down the expensive armaments programme. Politicians are idiots.
( Pacific Rim Spoilers )

Elysium

The rich go into space and the poor are stuck on a polluted earth. Meanwhile the rich live on a space habitat and have magic health care machines in every home.
( Elysium Spoilers )
Superman: Man of Steel
( Man of steel spoilers )

So many things I want to do, and yet seem to be completely unable to get around to it. Those "to it"s are never quite round enough. Here's the list. Partly for my own convenience.

When it comes to travel, I seriously need to visit Sweden. I do have a vague offer of a guide/couch space. I also want to visit Brussels by Eurostar. I could leave work at 5:00pm, and be there by just after 8:00 (well, 9:00 local time). This is something that I really want someone to do with someone though. A weekend involving pub crawls and sightseeing would be more fun if shared.

For single traveller stuff, I want to go to a convention. There's Eurocon in Zagreb (at a time that would be inconvenient for work) and Worldcon in Chicago. I have slight reservations about travelling to the US Too many horror stories.

From a less travellish POV, I plan to host an rpg session. Lack of tables or space at my place will cause a slight issue here. I will fix this.

More first aid. I did rather enjoy the course I did last year. I don't want to get rusty. I'm sure there's space for volunteers at LARPs. Just need to talk to people.

Movie nights. This may involve Pizza and Scott Pilgrim.

Also have to remember the Geekest Link pub quiz is on this Sunday. Perhaps this time I'll persuade someone to join me. Unlikely but could happen.

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luckykaa

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Entries tagged with movies

Today's munich weather will be bloody freezing followed by snow.

High on a hill was a lonely nerd-herd

Valentines geekend

The Force Awakens

Star Wars and Stewp!

Happy films!

James Bond needs a sidekicks spin-off.

2D or not 2D

Cinema Fail

Weekend of fun and frolics

(no subject)

Cultural exchange.

Jurassic World

The Imitation Game

Captain America

Media overload

Film meme thing: answers

Film meme thing

This summer's movie nitpicks: Pacific Rim, Elysium and Man of Steel

Things to do